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lit plcm^riam. 



Moscoc ©ont^Tvng. 



He did not fall 
Like drooping flowers that no man noticeth, 
But like a great branch of some stately tree, 
Rent in a tempest and flung down to death, 
Thick with green leafage." » » * » 



PROCEEDINGS 



SENATE AND ASSEMBLY 



i^tatc of J\t\v llovU, 



IN RELATKIN TO THE DEATH OF 



EX-SF.\.\T()1< K()S('()I' ('ONKLIXG, 



HELD AT THE 



CAPITOL. MAY 9. 1888. 



/Cc-«^4X ■> .' <-• 



'..■'■ 



Jm^ 



Till-: TkOV I'RESS COMPANY, PRINTERS. 
1888. 



PROCEEDINGS 



Leo'islatiire of the State of New York, 



IN RELATION TO THE DEATH OF 



^.v-i'cuittov 2^oscoc (CouhUug. 



IN ASSEMBLY : 

April 18, 1888. 

Mr. HusTED, addressing the Chair, spoke as 
follows : 

Mr. Speaker. — At fift}' minutes after one this morning 
KOSCOE CONKLING passed away. When I make that 
statement I think this House will unanimously concur 
with me that we have a right to deviate from the usual 
course whereby we offer resolutions five minutes before 
the hour of adjournment. 

I think this House will concur with me that a man so 
distinguished as he has been, that a man who has served 
this State so many years so faithfully and so well, who 
won for himself the first rank among American orators, 
American publicists and American statesmen, deserves 



i^cgislatiuc iH'occctUugs. 



esjjecial consideration from the members of the Legisla- 
ture of the State of New York. 

It is, sir, but nine years ago since, in this room, I 
nominated him for Senator of the United States. I did it 
then with jjleasure and with jiride. With grief and sorrow 
I now announce his death, and I beg leave, sir, to submit 
the following resolutions, which I will read myself: 

Besolved, That the Assembly learns with deep sorrow of 
the death of Hon. Eoscoe Conkling. 

Regolrecl, That his distinguished public services, his 
high standard of public honor, and his official and per- 
sonal integrity, merit the acknowledgment of the people 
of this State. 

Besolved, That as Eepresentative and Senator in Congress 
he won the admiration of his colleagues and the jjlaudits 
of the nation. 

Remhvd (if the Senate concur), That a joint commit- 
tee, consisting of five Senators and nine Members of 
the Assembly, be appointed by the presiding officers of the 
respective Houses, to prepare a suitable memorial of the 
public services of the deceased orator and statesman, and 
to report to the Legislature what further action shall be 
taken in order to pay to his memory the respectful tribute 
of their sorrow. 

Resolved, That out of respect to his memory this House 
do now adjourn. 

The resolution, by a rising vote, was unani- 
mously adopted. 



^'egislatiuc i\-ciccc(UuiTi6. 



IN SENATE : 

Aprii, 18, 1888. 
Senator Coggeshall offered the following : 

Beftolved, That the Senate of the State of New York 
learus with deep sorrow and profouud regret of the death 
of the Hon. Roscoe Conkling. His long and distinguished 
services in Congress as a Ilepresentative and Senator 
from the State of New York, his great intellectual attain- 
ments and lirilliant record, his honesty of public career 
and integrity, his loyalty of friendship and nobility of 
character, his illustrious and successful achievements, make 
his name and fame the common heritage of our State 
and nation, and enshrine him in the hearts of the iseople. 

Resolved (if the Assembly concur), That a committee of 
five Senators and nine Members of the Assembly be 
api^ointed by the President of the Senate and the Speaker 
of the Assembly to attend the funeral of Mr. Conkling, 
and to make arrangements for ajjprojjriate memorial ser- 
vices by the Legislature. 

Senators Coggeshall, Low and Cantor spoke 
to the resolutions, and they were unanimously 
adopted by a risinti' vote. 

The Assembly sent for concurrence the follow- 
ing resolution: 

Resolved, That the Assembly learns with deep sorrow of 
the death of Hon. Roscoe. Conkling. 



^ccjisUttinc S^'occctUugs. 



Resolved, That his distinguished public services, his 
high standard of public honor, and his official and per- 
sonal integrity, merit the acknowledgment of the jjeople 
of this State. 

Resolved, That as a Republican Senator in Congress he 
has won the admiration of his colleagues and the jslaudits 
of the nation. 

Resolved (if the Senate concur). That a joint commit- 
tee, consisting of five Senators and nine Members of 
the Assembly, be appointed by the presiding officers of the 
respective Houses to prepare a suitable memorial to the 
public services of the deceased orator and statesman, and 
to report to the Legislature what further action shall be 
taken in order to jiay to his memory the respectful tribvite 
of their sorrow ; also. 

Resolved (if the Senate concur), That a joint committee 
of nine Members of the Assembly and six Senators be 
appointed to attend the funeral of Roscoe Conkling. 

The President. — The subject-matter of the reso- 
hitions sent by the Assembly has been ah'eady 
adopted by resolutions just introduced and passed 
in the Senate, and no action is necessary upon 
the resolutions of the Assembly. 

Senator Coggeshall said: 

Mr. President. — It is not my purpose to pronounce 
any extended eulogy upon the character, life and ser- 
vices of the distinguished man whose death we so pro- 



l^coislatiuc ^\*ocec(UuiT|6. 



foundly regret. No eulogies, no words of praise, no arch 
of victory, no monumental pile is needed to endear him 
to the people. The story of his useful and honorable life 
illumines the brightest pages of our history, and the 
fruits of his incessant labors, read and known of all men, 
give luster to his name and will perj)etuate his memory. 
"He was a man, take him for all in all, we shall not 
look upon his like again ; " a man of tireless activity and 
industry, and unsurpassed integrity in public, professional 
and private life. 

In the councils of the nation he bore a conspicuous 
and honorable part in the legislation necessarj' for the 
preservation and reconstruction of the Union, and is 
one of the most distinguished figures in our political 
history. 

During nearly a quarter of a century of public service, 
when strong and brilliant men of both political parties 
fell, either by temptation or wicked and malicious denun- 
ciation, EoscoE Conkling's fair fame and honor was 
untouched. 

He was above alike corrui^tion and suspicion. In an 
age when vituperation and calumny are the stock in trade 
of political warfare, he bore himself with such dignity 
and uprightness as to command the respect of all. 

Although assailed and hounded and set upon by those 
who were jealous of his well-earned and richly-deserved 
success — although misrepresented, misjudged and wronged, 
and his proud, sensitive, high-spirited and chivalric soul 
wounded — yet the smell of fire was not on his garment. 

All the shafts of malice fell idle and harmless against 
the impenetrable armor of uprightness and self-resjject, 
with which he was fully panoplied. 



10 ^coistitttuc l^i'occcrtiugs. 



He was above tliem all. He rested then, as now, " the 
knight without fear and without reproach," in the jjer- 
petual sunshine of an undying fame. 

Sincere in his convictions, he despised shams and false 
pretense and hypocritical professions. 

He thought for himself, and spoke what he thought. 
He was loyal to his own convictions. Friendshij) could 
not swerve him from the jjath of duty. Ambition could 
not tempt him. Enemies did not and could not daunt 
him. He was an open, honorable, manly foe; a loyal, true 
and constant friend. He never turned the back of his 
hand to a friend, nor his back to an enemy. He never 
"crooked the pregnant hinges of the knee that thrift 
might follow fawning." He never masqueraded. He was, 
as you saw him, the same at all times, in all places, and 
under all circumstances — the soul of honor. 

" Faithful found among the faithless. 
Unshaken, unseduced, unterrlfied ; 
His loyalty kept, his love, his zeal, 
Nor number, nor example, 
With him wrouglit to swerve from truth, 
Or change his constant mind." 

1 At the full meridian of intellectual greatness, with 
many years of usefulness and renown before him, at a 
time when, more than ever before, his magnificent leader- 
ship was required in the party of which he was so many 
years a conspicuous member, this great and good, honest, 
true and incorrui^tilde man has closed his eyes in the 
dreamless sleep of death. 

Why this must be is lieyond human ken. Why this 
brave, strong, noljle, lion-hearted man should go out from 
the activities and grand possibilities of a life such as his, 



^'cglsliitiuc iH'occecUngs. 



auil wbeu he was so much needed by his party, his State 
and country, we know not. 

To the stern decrees of an All-wise and Overruling 
Providence we bow with grief-stricken hearts. At the 
portals of his grave the whole civilized world mourns. 

" He did not fall 
Like drooping flowers that no man noticeth, 

But like a great branch of some stately tree, 
Eent in a tempest and flung down to death, 

Thick with green leafage — so that piteously 
Each passer by that ruin shuddereth, 

And saith, ' The gap this breach hath left is wide. 

The loss thereof can never be supplied.'" 

As a born leader of men, as statesman or legislator, 
iis lawyer, as citizen, as fi-iend, we honor him and revere 
his memory. 

To the loving and beloved wife and daughter, to his 
family, to the world, he has left a legacy greater, better 
and grander than earthly riches — a good name, a repu- 
tation untarnished, an integrity unimpaired ; for, with 
Aristides, he could exclaim : " These are clean hands." 

Senator Low said : 

The Angel of Death has never taken a more kingly 
man, nor a more noble representative of all that is noblest 
and greatest in our civilization. I have known Kuscoe 
CoNKLiNG well for the past thirty years ; and among the 
great men who have honored their country and the world 
during that eventful jjeriod, he was the peer of the great- 
est and wisest and noblest of them all. He was a born 
leader of men, an intellectual giant ; he never found his 
equal ou the platform or iu the arena of the Senate 



12 ^cfjlsUttiuc ^voccctliugs. 



chamlier. In bis long service and j)ublic life he was free 
from all taiut or suspiciou of wrong or improper acts. 
He set an examjsle well worthy of the imitation of the 
young men of the country. His loss will be long and 
keenly felt, and the mourning for his untimely taking off 
will be deej) and lusting. 

Senator Cantoe said : 

I feel, Mr. President, that some expression of oiiinion 
shoiild be given by those to whom Eoscoe Conkling was 
politically opposed for so many years of his public life. 
The Democratic f)arty, to which he was always so honor- 
ably opposed, and vigorously ojiposed, found in him an 
upright, an honorable, a consistent and a persistent jioliti- 
cal foe. He was of that class of men who rely absolutely 
U230n his conviction of what was proper and right upon 
principle. He always advocated from a consistency of 
purpose, and a direct manly belief that they were just 
and honorable. And in every legislative or official act, 
he was of that class of men, of whom our community 
cannot boast so many, who are absolutely devoted to prin- 
ciple and conviction, and who believe that their country 
rises, at times, higher than party considerations. The life 
of RoscoE Conkling was one that was fraught with great 
and noble deeds. As a Member of Congress he was a 
representative faithful to his trust, faithful to his people 
in the advocacy of all public measures which, in his judg- 
ment, redounded to the public benefit ; faithful in all 
respects ; his services will be readily recognized and appre- 
ciated, not only by the people of the district which he so 
well represented, and by the jieojjle of the State whose 
Senator he was for two terms in the Senate of the Iluited 



^cfjislatiuc ^\-occctUuo5. 



states ; but, sir, lie has fouiKl ii place in the hearts of all 
the people who believe that honesty of purpose aud devo- 
tion t<. country rise paramount to all other considera- 
tions. I heartily second the adoption of the resolution. 

Senator Coggeshall oifered the following: 

Resolved, As a token of respect to the memory of 
the deceased, that the Senate do now adjourn. 

The motion was adoxited. 



IN ASSEMBLY: 

Ariui. 19, 1888. 



Mr. Beatty ottered the followino; resolution : 

Resolved (if the Senate concur), That a joint committee 
of nine Members of the Assembly and six Senators be 
appointed to attend the funeral of Hon. Eoscoe Conkling. 

The resolution was unanimously adopted. 



IN SENATE: 

Apuil 11), 1888. 

Senator Coggeshall offered the following: 

Whereas, The funeral of the Hon. Rosoue Conklino 
will occur in the city of New York on Friday, the twen- 
tieth instant ; and 

AVhekeas, His distinguished services in public life and 
his great eminence as a statesman, call for a marked 



14 ^cglsUttiuc S'vciccctliugs. 

expression of the high esteem iu which he was held by 
the people of the State ; therefore, be it 

Resolved (if the Assembly concur), That when the 
Senate and Assembly adjourn this evening, it be until 
Monday evening at a quarter past eight o'clock. 

The Pkesident put the question, and the reso- 
lution was adopted. 

The President announced the following com- 
mittees, pursuant to the concurrent resolutions 
of the Senate and Assembly, to attend the funeral 
of the Hon. Roscoe Conkling, and to make 
arrangements for appropriate memorial services 
by the Legislature : Senators Coggeshall, Lewis, 
Sweet, Laughlin, Mukphy and Reilly ; also, to 
attend the funeral in the city of New York : 
Senators Coggeshall, Sweet, Van Cott, O'Connor, 
Cantor and Stabler. 

The Assembly returned the resolution relative 
to the death of the Hon. Roscoe Conkling, with 
a message that they had concurred in the pass- 
age of the same without amendment, and had 
appointed as a committee on the part of the 
House Messrs. Husted, Gallagher, Huntting, 
Enz, Beatty, Blumenthal, John Martin, Gordon 
and Kent, 



%cc)|i5lutiuc iH'LKCc dings. 15 



IN ASSEMBLY: 

April 19, 1888. 

The Senate sent for concurrence the follow- 
ing message : 

Remlved, That the Senate of the State of New York 
learns with deej) sorrow and profound regret of the 
death of the Hon. Roscoe Conkling. His long and dis- 
tinguished services in Congress as a Representative and 
Senator from the State of New York, his great intel- 
lectual attainments and brilliant record, his honesty of 
public career and integrity, his loyalty of friendship 
and nobility of character, his illustrious and successful 
achievements, make his name and fame the common 
heritage of our State and nation, and enshrine him in 
the hearts of the peoj)le 

Resolved (if the Senate concur), That a committee of 
five Senators and nine Members of the Assembly be 
appointed by the President of the Senate and the Speaker 
of the Assembly to attend the funeral of Mr. Conkling, 
and to make arrangements for appropriate memorial ser- 
vices by the Legislature. 

The resolutions were unanimously adopted. 

The Speaker announced the following commit- 
tee to attend the funeral of the Hon. Roscoe 
Conkling and to draft resolutions : Mr. Husted, 
Mr. G.^LLAGHER, Mr. HuNTTiNG, Mr. Enz, Mr. 
Beatty, Mr. Blumenthal, Mr. John Martin, Mr. 
Gordon and Mr. Kent. 



i6 ^tcgisUitiuc iH*cicccttiuci$. 

The Senate sent for concurrence the follow- 
ing resolution : 

Whereas, The funeral of the Hon. Koscoe Conklino 
will occur in the city of New York on Friday, the 20th 
inst., and 

Whereas, His distinguished services in j)ublic life, and 
his great eminence as a statesman call for a marked 
expression of the esteem with which he was held by the 
people of this State ; therefore, be it 

Resolved (if the Assembly concur), That when the 
Senate and Assembly adjourn this evening, it be until 
Monday evening next at a quarter-past eight o'clock. 

The resolution was adopted. 



IN ASSEMBLY : 

Monday Evening, April 30, 1888. 

The Senate sent for concurrence a resolution 
in the words following : 

Resolved (if the Assembly concur), That a joint com- 
mittee having in charge the exercises in memory of the 
late RosroE Conklino, be requested to invite to attend the 
exercises the members of the present Congress, and such 
members of preceding sessions as sat in the House or 
Senate with Mr. Conkling. 

The resolution was adopted. 



/r 



JHcmorial Address 



ROSCOE CONKLING 



ROBERT (]. IXGERSOLL, 



DELIVERED nF.FORE THE 



New York State Legislature, at Albany, N. Y. 



I^tcmovial Address. 



flppOSCOE CONKLING— a great man, an orator, 
~l~: a statesman, a lawyer, a distinguished citi- 
i] zen of the Republic, in the zenith of his 
fame and i)ower has reached his journey's end; 
and we are met, here in the city of his birth, 
to pay our tribute to his worth and work. He 
earned and held a proud position in the public 
thought. He stood for independence, for courage, 
and above all for absolute integrity, and his 
name was known and honored by many millions 
of his fellow men. 

The literature of many lands is rich with 
the tributes that gratitude, admiration and love 
have paid to the great and honored dead. These 
tributes disclose the character of nations, the 
ideals of the human race. In them we find 
the estimates of greatness — the deeds and lives 
that challenged praise and thrilled the hearts 
of men. 

In the presence of death, the good man 



20 I^tcmoviiil AtUlvcss. 

judges as he would be judged. He knows 
that meu are only fragments — that the greatest 
walk in shadow, and that faults and failures 
mingle with the lives of all. 

In the grave should be buried the preju- 
dices and passions born of conflict. Charity 
should hold the scales in which are weighed 
the deeds of men. Peculiarities, traits born of 
locality and surroundings — these are but the 
dust of the race — these are accidents, drapery, 
clothes, fashions, that have nothing to do with 
the man except to hide his character. They 
are the clouds that cling to mountains. Time 
gives us clearer vision. That which was merely 
local fades away. The words of envy are 
forgotten, and all there is of sterling worth 
remains. He who was called a partisan is 
a patriot. The revolutionist and the outlaw 
are the founders of nations, and he who 
was regarded as a scheming, selfish politician 
becomes a statesman, a philoso[)her, whose 
words and deeds shed light. 

Fortunate is that nation great enough to 
know the great. When a great man dies — 
one who has nobly fought the battle of a life, 
who has been faithful to every trust, and has 
uttered his highest, noblest thought — one who 



has stood proudly by the ritrht in spite of jeer 
and taunt, neither stopped by foe nor swerved 
by friend — in honoring him, in speaking words 
of praise and love above his dust, we pay a 
tribute to ourselves. 

How poor this world would be without its 
graves, without the memories of its mighty 
dead. Only the voiceless speak forever. 

Intelligence, integrity and courage are the 
great pillars that support the State. 

Above all, the citizens of a free nation 
should honor the brave and independent man — 
the man of stainless integrity, of will and 
intellectual force. Such men are the Atlases 
on whose mighty shoulders rest the great 
fabric of the republic^ Flatterers, cringers, 
crawlers, time-servers are the dangerous citizens 
of a democracy. They who gain applause and 
power by jiandering to the mistakes, the preju- 
dices and passions of the multitude, are the 
enemies of liberty. 

When the intelligent submit to the clamor 
of the many, anarchy betrins and the republic 
reaches the edge of chaos. Mediocrity, touched 
with ambition Hatters the base and calumniates 
the great, while the true patriot, who will do 
neither, is often sacrificed. 



22 Memorial ^tldvcss. 

In a government of the people a leader 
should be a teacher — he should carry the torch 
of truth. 

Most i:)eople are the slaves of habit — follow- 
ers of custom — believers in the wisdom of the 
past — and were it not for brave and splendid 
souls, " the dust of antique time would lie 
unswept, and mountainous error be too highly 
lieaped for truth to overpeer." Custom is a 
prison, locked and barred by those who long 
ago were dust, the keys of which are in the 
keeping of the dead. 

Nothing is grander than when a strong, 
intrepid man breaks chains, levels walls and 
breasts the many-headed mob like some great 
cliff that meets and mocks the innumerable 
billows of the sea. 

The politician hastens to agree with the 
majority — insists that their prejudice is patriot- 
ism, that their ignorance is wisdom; — not that 
he loves them, but because he loves himself. 
The statesman, the real reformer, points out 
the mistakes of the multitude, attacks the 
prejudices of his countrymen, laughs at their 
follies, denounces their cruelties, enlightens and 
enlarges their minds and educates the con- 
science — not because he loves himself, but 



I^tcmoviul A(UU-C6S. 23 



because he loves and serves the riyht and wishes 
to make his country great and free. 

With him defeat is but a spur to further 
effort. He who refuses to stoop, who cannot 
be bribed by the ])romise of success, or the 
fear of failure — who walks the highway of the 
right, and in disaster stands erect, is the only 
victor. Nothing is more despicable than to 
reach fame by crawling, — position by cringing. 

When real history shall be written by the 
truthful and the wise, these men, these kneelers 
at the shrines of chance and fraud, these brazen 
idols worshipped once as gods, will be the very 
food of scorn, while those who bore the burden 
of defeat, who earned and kept their self- 
respect, who would not bow to man or men 
for place or power, will wear upon their brows 
the laurel mingled with the oak. 

RoscoE CoNKLiNG was a man of superb 
courage. 

He not only acted without fear, but he had 
that fortitude of soul that bears the conse- 
quences of the course pursued without com- 
plaint. He was charged with being proud. 
The charge was true ^ he was proud. His 
knees were as inflexible as the "unwedgeable 
and gnarled oak," but he was not vain. Vanity 



24 l^temovial ^tUtvcse. 

rests on the opinion of others — pride, on our 
own. The source of vanity is from without — 
of pride, from within. Vanity is a vane that 
turns, a willow that bends, with every breeze — 
pride is the oak that defies the storm. One 
is cloud — the other rock. One is weakness — 
the other strength. 

This imperious man entered public life in 
the dawn of the reformation — at a time when 
the country needed men of pride, of principle 
and courage. The institution of slavery had 
poisoned all the springs of power. Before this 
crime ambition fell upon its knees, — politicians, 
judges, clergymen, and merchant-princes bowed 
low and humbly, with their hats in their hands. 
The real friend of man was denounced as the 
enemy of his country — the real enemy of the 
human race was called a statesman and a 
patriot. Slavery was the bond and pledge of 
peace, of union, and national greatness. The 
temple of American liberty was finished — the 
auction-block was the corner-stone. 

It is hard to conceive of the utter demorali- 
zation, of the political blindness and immorality, 
of the patriotic dishonesty, of the cruelty and 
degradation of a people who supplemented the 
incomparable Declaration of Independence with 
the Fugitive Slave Law. 



|1kXcmcivuil AtUlvcss. 



Think of the honored statesmen of that igno- 
ble time who wallowed in this mire, and who, 
decorated with dripping filth, received the 
plaudits of their fellow-men. The noble, the 
really patriotic, were the victims of mobs, 
and the shameless were clad in the robes of 
office. 

But let us speak no word of blame — let us 
feel that each one acted according to his light — 
according to his darkness. 

At last the conflict came. The hosts of 
light and darkness prepared to meet upon the 
fields of war. The question was presented: 
Shall the Republic be slave or free? The 
Republican party had triumphed at the polls. 
The greatest man in our history was President 
elect. The victors were appalled— they shrank 
from the great responsibility of success. In 
the presence of rebellion they hesitated — they 
offered to return the fruits of victory. Hoping 
to avert war they were willing that slavery 
should become immortal. An amendment to 
the Constitution was proposed, to the effect that 
no subsecpient amendment should ever be made 
that in any way should interfere with the right 
of man to steal his fellow-men. 

This, the most marvelous proposition ever 



20 ^tcmox'uil ^(IdvcsB. 

submitted to a Congress of civilized men, 
received in the House an overwhelming major- 
ity, and the necessary two-thirds in the Senate. 
The Republican party, in the moment of its 
triumph, deserted every principle for which it 
had so gallantly contended, and with the trem- 
bling hands of fear laid its convictions on the 
altar of compromise. 

The Old Guard, numbering but sixty-five in 
the House, stood as firm as the three hundred 
at Thermopylas. Thaddeus Stevens — as malic- 
iously right as any other man was ever wrong — 
refused to kneel. Owen Lovejoy, remembering 
his • brother's noble blood, refused to sur- 
render, and on the edge of disunion, in the 
shadow of civil war, with the air filled with 
sounds of dreadful preparation, while the Repub- 
lican party was retracing its steps, Roscoe 
CoNKLiNG voted No. This puts a wreath of 
glory on his tomb. From that vote to the last 
moment of his life he was a champion of eciual 
rights, stanch and stalwart. 

From that moment he stood in the front 
rank. He never wavered and he never swerved. 
By his devotion to principle — his courage, the 
splendor of his diction, — by his varied and pro- 
found knowledge, his conscientious devotion to 



IHcmovial AtUlvcss. 2; 



the great cause, and by his intellectual scope 
and grasp, he won and held the admiration of 
his fellow-men. 

Disasters in the field, reverses at the polls, 
did not and could not shake his courage or his 
faith. He knew the ghastly meaning of defeat. 
He knew that the great ship that slavery sought 
to strand and wreck was freighted with the 
world's sublimest hope. 

He battled for a nation's life — tor the rights 
of slaves — the dignity of labor, and the liberty 
of all. He guarded with a father's care the 
rights of the hunted, the hated and despised. 
He attacked the savage statutes of the recon- 
structed States with a torrent of invective, scorn 
and execration. He was not satisfied until the 
freedman was an American Citizen — clothed 
with every civil right — until the Constitution 
was his shield — until the ballot was his sword. 

And long after we are dead, the colored man 
in this and other lands will speak his name in 
reverence and love. Others wavered, but he 
stood firm; some were false, but he was proudly 
true — fearlessly faithful unto death. 

He gladly, proudly grasped the hands of col- 
ored men who stood with Jiim as makers of 
our laws, and treated theni as equals and as 



28 lUcmoviiil J^tUlvcss. 

friends. The cry of " social equality " coined 
and uttered by the cruel and the base, was to 
him the expression of a great and splendid 
truth. He knew that no man can be the equal 
of one he robs — that the intelligent and unjust 
are not the superiors of the ignorant and hon- 
est — and he also felt, and i)roudly felt, that if 
he were not too great to reach the hand of help 
and recognition to the slave, no other Senator 
could rightfully refuse. 

We rise by raising others — and he who 
stoops above the fallen, stands erect. 

Nothing can be grander than to sow the seeds 
of noble thoughts and virtuous deeds — to liber- 
ate the bodies and the souls of men — to earn 
the grateful homage of a race — and then, in 
life's last shadowy hour, to know that the his- 
torian of Liberty will be comi)elled to write 
your name. 

There are no words intense enough, — with 
heart enough — to express my admiration for the 
great and gallant souls who have in every age 
and every land upheld the right, and who have 
lived and died for freedom's sake. 

In our lives have been the grandest years 
that man has lived, that Time has measured 
bv the flight of worlds. 



I^tcmoviiil AtUIvcss. 



The history of that great Party that let the 
oppressed go free — that lifted our nation from 
the depths of savagery to freedom's cloudless 
heights, and tore with holy hands from every 
law the words that sanctified the cruelty of 
man, is the most glorious in the annals of our 
race. Never before was there such a moral 
exaltation — never a party with a purpose so 
pure and high. It was the embodied conscience 
of a nation, the enthusiasm of a people guided 
by wisdom, the impersonation of justice; and 
the sublime victory achieved loaded even the 
conquered with all the rights that freedom can 
bestow. 

RoscoE CoNKLiNG was an absolutely honest 
man. 

Honesty is the oak around which all other 
virtues cling. Without that they fall, and 
groveling die in weeds and dust. He believed 
that a nation should discharge its obligations. 
He knew that a ])romise could not be made 
often enough, or emphatic enough, to take the 
place of payment. He felt that the promise of 
the government was the promise of every citi- 
zen—that a national obligation was a personal 
debt, and that no possible combination of words 
and pictures could take the place of coin. He 



30 |1tXcmovial JVrtdvcss. 

uttered the splendid truth that " the higher obli- 
gations among men are not set down in writ- 
ing signed and sealed, but reside in honor." 
He knew that repudiation was the sacrifice of 
honor — the death of the national soul. He 
knew that without character, without integrity, 
there is no wealth, and that below poverty, 
below bankruptcy, is the rayless abyss of repu- 
diation. He upheld the sacredness of contracts, 
of plighted national faith, and helped to save 
and keep the honor of his native land. This 
adds another laurel to his brow. 

He was the ideal representative, faithful and 
incorruptible. He believed that his constituents 
and his country were entitled to the fruit of 
his experience, to his best and highest thought. 
No man ever held the standard of responsibility 
higher than he. He voted according to his 
judgment, his conscience. He made no bar- 
gains — he neither bought nor sold. 

To correct evils, abolish abuses and inaugu- 
rate reforms, he believed was not only the duty, 
but the privilege, of a legislator. He neither 
sold nor mortgaged himself. He was in Con- 
gress during the years of vast expenditure, of 
war and waste — when the credit of the nation 
was loaned to individuals — when claims were 



Ilttcmoviul ^(Itlvcss. t,\ 

thick as leaves in June, when the amendment 
of a statute, the change of a single word, meant 
millions, and when empires were given to cor- 
])orations. He stood at the summit of his 
power — peer of the greatest — a leader tried and 
trusted. He had the tastes of a ijrince, the 
fortune of a peasant, and yet he never swerved. 
No corporation was great enough or rich enough 
to purchase him. His vote could not be bought 
" for all the sun sees, or the close earth wombs, 
or the profound seas hide." His hand was never 
touched by any bribe, and on his soul there 
never was a sordid stain. Poverty was his 
priceless crown. 

Above his marvelous intellectual gifts — above 
all place he ever reached, — above the ermine 
he refused, — ^ rises his integrity like some great 
mountain peak — and there it stands, firm as 
the earth beneath, pure as the stars above. 

He was a great lawyer. He understood the 
frame-work, the anatomy, the foundations of 
law; was familiar with the great streams and 
currents and tides of authority. 

He knew the history of legislation — the prin- 
ciples that have been settled upon the fields of 
war. He knew the maxims, — those crystalliza- 
tions of common sense, those hand-grenades of 



32 l^cmoviul :^tTittvcss. 



argument. He was not a case-lawyer — a deci- 
sion index, or an echo; he was original, thought- 
ful and iirofound. He had breadth and scope, 
resource, learning, logic, and above all, a sense 
of justice. He was painstaking and conscien- 
tious — anxious to know the facts — preparing 
for every attack, ready for every defense. He 
rested only when the end was reached. During 
the contest, he neither sent nor received a flag 
of truce. He was true to his clients — making 
their case his. Feeling responsibility, he listened 
patiently to details, and to his industry there 
were only the limits of time and strength. He 
was a student of the Constitution. He knew 
the boundaries of State and Federal jurisdiction, 
and no man was more familiar with those great 
decisions that are the peaks and promontories, 
the headlands and the beacons, of the law. 

He was an orator, — earnest, logical, intense 
and picturesque. He laid the foundation with 
care, with accuracy and skill, and rose by "cold 
gradation and well balanced form " from the 
corner-stone of statement to the domed conclu- 
sion. He filled the stage. He satisfied the 
eye — the audience was his. He had that 
indefinable thing called presence. Tall, com- 
mandmg, erect — ample in si)eech, graceful in 



incmovuxl JVtUtvcss. 



compliment, Titanic in denunciation, rich in illus- 
tration, prodigal of comparison and metaphor — 
and his sentences, measured and rhythmical, 
fell like music on the enraptured throng. 

He abhorred the Pharisee, and loathed all 
conscientious fraud. He had a profound aver- 
sion for those who insist on putting base 
motives back of the good deeds of others. He 
wore no mask. He knew his friends — his 
enemies knew him. 

He had no patience with pretense — with 
patriotic reasons for unmanly acts. He did his 
work and bravely spoke his thought. 

Sensitive to the last degree, he keenly felt the 
blows and stabs of the envious and obscure — 
of the smallest, of the weakest— but the greatest 
could not drive him from conviction's field. 
He would not stoop to ask or give an explana- 
tion. He left his words and deeds to justify 
themselves. 

He held in light esteem a friend who heard 
with half -believing ears the slander of a foe. 
He walked a highway of his own, and kept the 
company of his self-respect. He would not 
turn aside to avoid a foe — to greet or gain a 
friend. 

In his nature there was no compromise. To 



34 |3:tcmo villi ^rtrtvcss. 

him there were but two paths — the right and 
wrong. He was maligned, misrepresented and 
misunderstood — but he would not answer. He 
knew that character speaks louder far than any 
words. He was as silent then as he is now — 
and his silence, better than any form of speech, 
refuted every charge. 

He was an American — proud of his country, 
that was and ever will be proud of him. He 
did not find perfection only in other lands. 
He did not grow small and shrunken, withered 
and apologetic, in the presence of those upon 
whom greatness had been thrust by chance. 
He could not be overawed by dukes or lords, 
nor flattered into vcrtebrateless subserviency by 
the patronizing smiles of kings. In the midst 
of conventionalities he had the feeling of suffo- 
cation. He believed in the royalty of man, in 
the sovereignty of the citizen, and in the 
matchless greatness of this Republic. 

He was of the classic mould — a figure from 
the antique world He had the pose of the 
great statues — the pride and bearing of the 
intellectual Greek, of the conquering Roman, 
and he stood in the wide free air, as though 
within his veins there flowed the blood of a 
hundred kings. 



incmoviul Artrtvcss. 35 



And as he lived he died. Proudly he entered 
the darkness — or the dawn — that we call death. 
Unshrinkingly he passed beyond our horizon, 
beyond the twilight's i)urple hills, beyond the 
utmost reach of human harm or help — to that 
vast realm of silence or of joy where the innu- 
merable dwell, and he has left with us his 
wealth of thought and deed — the memory of a 
brave, imperious, honest man, who bowed alone 
to death. 

Mr. HusTED said: 

Mr. Chairman.- I move that the thanks of the Legis- 
lature be tendered to the Hon. Robert G. Ingersoll, for 
the masterly oration to which we have listened, and, sir, 
in making this motion, I am confident that I express the 
unauimovis seutimeul of this body, when I say that in 
purity of style, in poetic expression, in cogency of state- 
ment and brilliancy of rhetoric it stands unrivaled among 
the eulogies of either ancient or modern days. As effec- 
tive as Demosthenes, as polished as Cicero, as ornate as 
Burke, as scholarly as Gladstone, the orator of the 
evening, in surpassing others, has eclipsed himself. 

Senator Coggeshall said : 

Mr. Chairman. — No words that I can utter will add to 
the able and eloquent eulogy pronounced by Mr. Ingee- 
soLL upon the life, character and services of Roscoe 

CONKLINU. 



36 IVlcmoviitl :Art(U'C66. 



It is indeed a worthy tribute by one of America's 
most gifted orators to one of the foremost men of his 
time. 

On behalf of the Senate and Assembly, I second the 
motion of the gentleman from Westchester. 



|:coisUitiuc ^H-ciccc(UiUT|S. 



.V 



CONCURREiNT RESOLUTION 



SENATE AND ASSEMBLY. 



STATE OF NEW YORK : 

In Senate, 

3{ay 10, 1888. 

Senator Coggeshall offered the following: 

Besolved (if the Assembly concur), That there be printed 
by the legislative printer, under the direction of the 
Clerks of the Senate and Assembly, ten thousand copies 
of the proceedings of the Legislature and the memorial 
oration of Colonel Robert G. Ingeksoll on the death of 
ex-Senator Roscoe Conkling, for the use of the members 
of the Legislature ; five hundred copies for the use of 
Colonel Ingersoll, five hundred copies for the family of 
the deceased, and five hundred copies for the officers and 
reporters of the Legislature. 



38 ^cgisUttiuc ^vocccrtings. 



STATE OF NEW YORK : 

In Assembly, 

May 10, 1888. 

The Senate sent for concurrence the follow- 
ing resolution : 

Resolved (if the Assembly concur), That there be printed 
by the legislative printer, under the direction of the 
Clerks of the Senate and Assembly, ten thousand copies 
of the proceedings of the Legislature and the memorial 
oration of Colonel Robert G. Ingersoll on the death of 
Hon. RoscoE Conkling. 

The Speaker put the question and the reso- 
lution was unanimously adopted. 

STATE OF NEW YORK: STATE OF NEW YORK: 

In Assembly, ( In Senate, i 

.l/.i,i/ 10, 1888. 1 .M'lu 10, 1888, \ 

The forPKoing resolution was duly The foregoing resolution was duly 

concurred in, pas.sed. 

By order of the Assembly. By order of the Senate. 

CHAS. A. CHIUKERING, JOHN S. KENYON, 

Clerk. Cltrli. 









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